Gracie Jiu Jitsu

I recently got the opportunity to attend a Military/Law Enforcement version of the Gracie Combatives Instructor Course taught by Rener Gracie. I have previously attended the Army’s Combatives Instructor course and have seen the Gracie Combatives DVDs but was still extremely impressed by the course to say the least. While I liked the curriculum the most impressive part of the course for me was learning the Gracie teaching methodology. I’ve always thought Rener was a great instructor based off his videos but had no idea that they had broken down the science to such a detail. I honestly believe they could conduct teaching seminars alone. Awesome training and Rener’s jiu jitsu was sick! I will definitely stop by their academy next time I’m on the west coast. Bjj4life!

I hear you…one thing that was cool was a concept called shading. If you have like 8 steps to teach you don’t highlight all 8 during the first demo. You talk about maybe 4 then show it again adding another 3, ect until you cover all 8. So you have to show the tech maybe at least 3 or 5 times to cover all steps. This does not include the silent demo and the the demo where the instructor reverses roles.

While I’m not a fan of video testing I can tell you their method is a lot harder to pass then people think…they have about a 50% failure rate. Bottom line I don’t think they will be selling belts and doubt many people who just buy the DVDs and not train at one of their association will pass.

That sounds like a sensible method. I’ve noticed a couple of times when my instructor puts me with a white belt and I feel I should therefore be making an effort to help, I start going through way too much information and have to stop myself, trying to pare it back to the fundamental points first.

It can be hard to remember that old proviso about teaching, which I think went something like this: “the best way to teach somebody nothing is to teach them everything.” I.e., don’t overload or you’ll burn them out.